Work Text:
Even in college, grown up and moved out, there were good days and there were bad days. Everyone was going to have their share of both.
So maybe Kanade staying up all night to work on a composition, completely hunched over at her desk while Mafuyu slept behind her, wasn’t the path to a good day. Which she only recognized by the time the sun began peeking through the curtains and Mafuyu left for her early classes with a kiss on top of Kanade’s head like always.
Kanade stumbled out to the kitchen not long after Mafuyu left, rubbing weariness out of her eyes. While she used to be able to keep working for even longer without breaks, living with her partners gave her a new schedule, a schedule that meant she also had to get ready for her own classes later. Those were online, too. Mizuki still called her a hermit just about every time they left for their own classes or work.
Said person looked up from their bowl of cereal. “Morning, sleepyhead!” they said, just awake enough despite still being in their pajamas. They hadn’t even tied their hair back yet; it fell in messy waves around their shoulders.
“Good morning.” Kanade took a bowl from the cabinet, ignoring the crackling sound her back made when she stretched to reach it. Mizuki had good taste in cereal.
Everything was fine apart from that; the cereal wasn’t nearly as high. At least, it was fine until she dropped her napkin. She just kind of looked at it for a moment before picking it up—and she definitely felt her back muscles tense when she bent over.
Kanade could feel Mizuki’s frown on her before she could even fully straighten. “Everything alright?” they asked, though Kanade could tell they already knew the answer.
“My back is just a bit stiff today.” She tried to actually crack it, to no avail. Even sitting back down felt like a feat. But that was just how those days went. It happened, she dealt with it.
Mafuyu did tell her that she probably had scoliosis, just based on initial screening, but Kanade tended to forget that until those days.
Mizuki didn’t say anything as they both ate, though they raised a skeptical eyebrow when Kanade put one of her arms between her back and the chair. That didn’t help much with her muscles, either, but at least it made sitting a little more comfortable.
Kanade took longer to eat than they did. She heard Mizuki flit around the small house getting ready for their day once they finished. Ena would probably wake up soon, then.
“Alright, my favorite hermit, I’m off!” They leaned over and kissed Kanade’s cheek, waving goodbye at the door before they left. Their classes never took long; they’d stop back for a while before going to work until dinner.
Once Kanade finished her cereal, she put her dishes in the sink—Wednesdays were Ena’s day for washing them. She returned to her and Mafuyu’s room, intent to finish the last few details on her composition before she had to join her first class.
Instead, she found a small surprise.
A plush Phenny, hers from the last time they all visited Phoenix Wonderland, was sitting in her desk chair wearing her headphones. At her bedside table, there was a bottle of water and pain meds. The heating pad they all shared was placed neatly on her bed with a note.
Your shoulders were a dead giveaway if nothing else was. Rest! Don’t make me sic Phenny (and Ena and Mafuyu) on you! -Mizu <3
Kanade felt herself smile at the note. As much as she hated taking time to do nothing, Mizuki was probably right. Especially about her shoulders being more uneven than usual. They saw the signs that Kanade hardly noticed herself.
She plugged in the heating pad, taking the pain medication and downing the rest of the bottle of water as she waited for it to warm. Then she situated herself on her stomach with the heating pad positioned just right on her lower back. She had her phone with her, so she set an alarm to keep her from missing class. With the lights in her room still off and only natural light coming through her windows, it was still enough for her to fall asleep if she wanted. And she probably would.
She’d have to remember to thank Mizuki when she woke up, hopefully with a much less achy back.
~~~
Ena groaned softly, running her hands through her hair. She’d already spent the last two hours trying to come up with something, anything, she could use for her next assignment in her favorite art class. Nothing was good enough for what should’ve been a simple assignment. And while it wasn’t unusual for her to hit a wall with her art, that didn’t make it any less frustrating.
She finally stood up from her desk and grabbed her wrist brace off of her bed—she’d gotten a lot better at wearing it to prevent too much strain and help with the occasional wrist pain, but she hated wearing it while actually drawing. That was … the first time in a few hours she left her and Mizuki’s room. Her only class of the day was still a while off. Mizuki was going to be gone for a while longer, since they had work, and Mafuyu still had a couple classes left in her day.
Kanade, on the other hand…
Ena knocked softly on Kanade’s open door. “Mind if I hang out in here?” she asked when Kanade lowered her headphones.
“Sure. I’m just finishing a couple of assignments.” She unplugged her headphones, soft music filtering out of her speakers. It was the backing track of one of their songs from back when Nightcord at 25:00 first began. It would’ve been a throwback if Ena didn’t listen to their songs all the time, still. Kanade frowned slightly, probably noting the bags starting to form under Ena’s eyes, her general fatigue. “Is something wrong?”
“Just a lack of inspiration.” She sat cross-legged on the edge of Kanade’s bed, fiddling with the straps of her brace. “You can ignore me, I just needed to not work on art for a minute.” And if that wasn’t a sign of growth, she didn’t know what was.
Kanade kept working, her rhythmic typing and the music creating a pretty calm atmosphere. Usually if Ena was blocked, she wanted inspiration, and she would go to Sekai or call up Airi and see if she wanted to go somewhere. But she just … needed a break. And it was good that she was taking one, as much as a small younger part of her screamed that she wasn’t going to improve if she didn’t spend her time working on the same sketch over and over.
Ena was now old enough to recognize what she needed a good eighty percent of the time instead of just thirty. Sometimes that meant sitting in the same room as one of her partners, giving herself a mental break from her art.
Watching Kanade work on something that wasn’t a composition was interesting enough that it kept Ena’s attention off of her sketch. There was a little scrunch in Kanade’s brow; she hummed along to the music every now and then. It was cute. Maybe that was what was taking her attention.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed by the time Kanade turned in her last assignment, but Ena felt significantly less angry and irritated with herself. Kanade must’ve realized that, too. She stood up and stretched, her back cracking, then sat next to Ena on the bed. “Can I kiss you?” she asked in that soft, sweet voice of hers. Ena nodded, hugging Kanade close to her while they kissed. That made her feel even better.
And when she thought about feeling better, she thought about how Mafuyu always used to describe that feeling as warmth. If Ena were to draw that, how would it look?
Ena kissed Kanade once more before pulling away. “I think I’ve got it,” she said with a smile. “Thanks, Kanade.”
“I don’t know what I did, but you’re welcome?”
~~~
Mizuki’s new sundress didn’t look right.
It fit perfectly when they tried it on at the mall—a now-rare shopping day with An now that they were both busy with their lives. A soft yellow, a gentle v-neck, a swishy skirt they’d proudly spun in for An, but now…
They didn’t know. The waistline didn’t fall on their hips right. The neckline went between being too deep and suffocatingly high. It was already the kind of day when they kept the lights off while showering so they didn’t have to look at themself more than was necessary. And then, then, Mizuki had very mistakenly thought that wearing their new dress would help those feelings pass.
Now they just felt worse.
They turned off the anime they’d been trying to watch for the last couple hours, too distracted to pay attention. It was Saturday, so Ena and Kanade were on a grocery run. Usually they’d be out doing something, but they didn’t feel like being in public. They should change into something else, something more shapeless…
Mafuyu walked out of her room right as Mizuki was about to walk into theirs. She’d been working on a paper since breakfast, if they remembered right. It was already almost noon.
“Mizuki,” she said. Mizuki froze, their arms crossed and shoulders hunched in. “That dress looks good on you.”
They blinked. Although Mafuyu had slowly started recovering and expressing her emotions, she still often spoke bluntly, even when giving compliments. “Huh?”
“You look beautiful.”
A frown tugged at their lips. They doubted it. “I don’t know. I think I might return it…”
Mafuyu studied their expression. “I’ll be right back.” She disappeared back into her room. Mizuki waited right outside for the couple of minutes she was gone. When she returned, she draped something over their shoulders. “It’s a light cardigan. It might go with the dress, if you wanted.”
The cardigan, one Mafuyu wore often, was a soft gray, and just downright soft. It smelled like Mafuyu. And … it would cover their shoulders. Give less shape to their waist. It was … well, not perfect, but better.
“Thank you,” they said, putting the cardigan on properly. They were still getting used to sometimes sharing clothes with Mafuyu since they were the same size, a relatively recent discovery. They brushed their hair, left down, in front of their shoulders to cover them more.
“You looked very in your head.”
“Aha, did I?” But there was no way for them to deny that. They sighed. “It’s just … one of those days, y’know?” They tugged the cardigan a little closer.
“I know.” Mafuyu kissed their cheek; they’d both grown a bit since high school, but she was almost the same height as Mizuki, so cheek kisses were easy for her. “I’m hungry. Do you want lunch?”
Mizuki almost shook their head, but their stomach betrayed them by growling. “I think we still have leftover takeout.” Otherwise they’d both have to wait for Kanade and Ena to return. But Mizuki had some leftover orange chicken and fries they would gladly eat cold. No matter how many times Ena begged them to heat it up first.
Mafuyu stuck her own leftovers in the microwave, then sat down with Mizuki and stared at them through the steam coming up from her plate.
“What, is there something on my face already?” Mizuki tried joking.
Mafuyu shook her head. “You’re pretty.”
And if Mizuki felt the blush in their cheeks, they didn’t say anything.
~~~
Dull.
The colors in Mafuyu and Kanade’s room. The sun that tried bleeding through their curtains. The ache in her head. The tightness of her chest. All at once as soon as she woke up. Simply dull.
Mafuyu couldn’t be sure how long ago that was. All she knew was that in all that time, she couldn’t think of a reason to get out of bed.
It wasn’t the first time that happened. She tried to work through it, force herself through her days in her last year of high school, less so her first year of university. She hadn’t even managed to get up for breakfast, much less shower and get ready for the day. Her hair already felt greasy, dirty. How long had she been lying there?
There was a knock at her door—Kanade had closed it after leaving for something, Mafuyu couldn’t remember what—before it swung open. Mafuyu wasn’t facing the door, but she could tell it was Ena based on her heavy, almost stomping footsteps. Ena always hated it when Mafuyu brought that up.
“Mafuyu, are you awake?” Mafuyu pulled her covers closer around her as a response. “Good. I brought you something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Ena sighed. It wasn’t one of her annoyed sighs, though. “Please? It’s already two in the afternoon.”
…That late. Her last class of the day was just starting. Her chest squeezed even tighter. She hadn’t let her professors know she wouldn’t be there.
A weight settled on the bed just behind her. “Look, it’s not a lot. It’s easy to digest.”
And it wasn’t that Ena couldn’t care for her and their partners so gently. It was just such a deviation from her more stubborn methods of caring that it felt … she didn’t know.
Although her stomach was empty, Mafuyu did not feel the need to eat. Her taste had slowly returned to her in the last two years, but she knew whatever Ena brought would taste bland.
“Come on. A few bites, then we’ll get you into the shower.” She felt the light pressure of Ena’s hand on her shoulder. The velcro of her wrist brace tugged slightly at the blanket. “You kinda smell.”
That was more like Ena. Still, Mafuyu couldn’t bring herself to move. Until Ena slipped her hand under Mafuyu’s other shoulder, helping her sit up. She didn’t give Ena much help, but she didn’t fight against her. She didn’t let herself go limp.
“See? Just some rice and egg.” Ena lifted the small bowl she’d brought into the bedroom with her. The food was still steaming a little. Fresh. Did she make that just for Mafuyu? “Eat half, alright?”
Against her stomach’s judgment, Mafuyu took the bowl.
“Mizuki and Kanade are both out still,” Ena said while Mafuyu ate. She shifted on the bed so they were both more comfortable sitting. “Kanade emailed your professors and told them you’re out sick, so you won’t be penalized or anything.”
Mafuyu paused between flavorless bites. That was really thoughtful of her.
Ena hesitated for around a minute before continuing. “Is this just one of those days, or…?” Mafuyu shrugged. “Okay, fair enough. It’s hard to tell sometimes.”
She waited patiently as Mafuyu finished half of the bowl. “I have to shower?” she asked, her voice as flat as it once had been. Adding emotion was too tiring.
“Yep. Showers often help me feel better, just because I’m clean, so it couldn’t hurt, right?” Ena took the bowl from her.
“...Can you help?” She didn’t know how to express it, but she felt like if it was just her, she would only stand under the water. Perhaps never leave or even enter the shower to begin with.
“If you want.” Ena held her hand as they both stood. Mafuyu didn’t know why holding hands was necessary; she wasn’t unsteady or lightheaded. Ena led her to the bathroom, loosely brushing out Mafuyu’s tangled hair with her fingers as she waited for the water to warm. Her hair tugged gently at her scalp.
“Alright, clothes off.” Ena started with her own, then helped Mafuyu with the rest of hers. It wasn’t the first time they’d showered together, but the first when Mafuyu didn’t feel.
She didn’t think it would work until they stepped in and the water and Ena’s hands running through her hair sparked the tiniest bit of warmth in the dull of her chest.
~~~
Friday nights were like a sigh of relief.
Kanade usually did most of her work on Sundays. Ena and Mizuki did theirs throughout the weekend, and thought Mafuyu tended to start hers in the afternoon, studying was strictly off-limits for everyone on Friday nights.
The smell of the curry Ena and Kanade (but mostly Ena) had made was still in the air as everyone finished eating. “Whose turn is it to choose what we’re doing tonight?” Kanade checked, tidying up her place at the table so it would be easier to clean.
“I’m up!” Mizuki raised their hand excitedly, almost falling out of their chair. Kanade chuckled as Ena rolled her eyes. Mafuyu gently tugged them down. “I found this one anime I’ve been dying to watch with you guys, it’s got a little of everything for all of us.”
Silently, Kanade thanked Mizuki for choosing to stay in instead of going out. Fridays weren’t formally a date night—they had plenty of those, too—but choosing activities for all of them was a tradition of sorts left over from when Mizuki was still in high school and spent almost every weekend at the house. Ena usually chose to go out somewhere, and even Mafuyu had been choosing places like Phoenix Wonderland more often. So Kanade was glad Mizuki usually split their decision between going out and staying in pretty evenly.
“That sounds nice.” Mafuyu stood, starting to clear the table; whoever didn’t cook cleaned afterward, so it was fair.
“It’s gonna be great, I promise.” They bounced out of their seat again, this time to help with the dishes. They twirled once, grinning when their skirt flared around them. “Enanan, you’re staring!”
“No I’m not.” Ena averted her gaze quickly, a blush still in her cheeks, betraying her. A blush that only rose to her ears when Mizuki doubled back to kiss the top of her head from behind. “A-anyway, who wants the ends of the couch this time?”
Code for “who doesn’t want to be squished when we end up cuddling and probably kissing, completely ignoring whatever we’re watching?”
“I’ll take one,” Mafuyu offered, putting the clean dishes aside for Mizuki to dry. She usually volunteered, meaning the other was up for grabs between the three of them.
“I’ve been in the middle the last few times, I’ll take the other.” Mizuki started drying the dishes finally, though not after an almost scolding glance from Mafuyu.
Kanade nodded, standing and stretching her back until it popped. “Same time as always?” Everyone else nodded, so Kanade retreated to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Only she and Mafuyu showered in the evening, since Ena and Mizuki preferred the mornings. Changing into fresh pajamas with just-dried hair was a nice feeling.
She made a little camp for herself on the couch as everyone else prepared for their night in. There would be lots of pillows, blankets, and even though they all just ate, she knew Mizuki would get out some snack foods for them all. Then, between episodes, someone would brew tea or make hot chocolate.
Ena joined her first, keeping a small distance on Kanade’s left just for the time being before there was less space on the couch for everyone. She scrolled through social media while the two of them waited, tilting her phone to show Kanade the funnier posts.
Then came Mafuyu, sitting snugly against the arm of the couch on Kanade’s right. She didn’t say or do anything; she never did while they waited. But she did watch Ena and Kanade with affection in her eyes.
And finally, Mizuki, arms full of the snacks they broke out just for nights in. They snatched the remote from the coffee table, snuggling in next to Ena and already leaning against her, pushing her slightly into Kanade. Kanade didn’t mind; that sort of behavior was to be expected in the middle. It took getting used to at first, but she was quite content being in the middle, just as she would be content on the end if Mafuyu, most often on the end, ever wanted to switch with her.
“Here we go!” Mizuki said, setting up the show with a flourish. Kanade snuggled under one of the blankets, her hand finding Mafuyu’s easily. Mafuyu squeezed her hand gently.
On that couch, with her three partners, three of her favorite people in the world, Kanade couldn’t think of better people to spend her best days with.